9 Lives Chicken Dinner vs. 9 Lives Ground Chicken Dinner

we've had a terrible time finding something Kitty will eat since he rejected new label Fancy Feast. He is now on day 2 of his OTJ trial -- terrible timing for switching food.

Finally! He will eat 9 Lives Chicken Dinner. Janet & Binky's chart shows carbs of 4 (equivalent to FF chicken feast) for "Ground Chicken Dinner," but at the store, we found "Chicken Dinner."

Think it's safe to assume they're the same thing? The picture sure looks "ground." He has eaten it for 24 hours. BG numbers haven't improved, but they haven't worsened either.

 

I've been wondering the same. There are a few on the list that are just slightly different from what I'm finding in the store. I've been afraid to use them for Tugger without knowing for sure but haven't taken the time to note which ones are different so I could come in and ask.

 

I am afraid, too, but I am out of options. Kitty has rejected everything else on Janet & Binky's list that is comparable in carbs, calories, etc.

And I rejected several options because they had carbs of 7 or 8. FF chicken feast is listed at 4, and because he's on OTJ trial I wanted to be very careful.

How horrible if I were feeding him something of 7 or 8, when I could have chosen something maybe higher quality of the same carbs. :?

 

If it hasn't changed his numbers by now, do you think it will? I don't know how long it takes to show up in the numbers with most cats but with Tugger I can see it within a few hours if his food is going to bump his numbers up. I fed him a 7% one night in the middle of the night, thinking it said 1% and it took me a few minutes to figure out why his AMPS was higher than usual. Fortunately for me, I'm a slob so the can and lid from the middle of the night feeding were on the counter and I saw that it was 7 and not 1 so I figured it out. I've fed him 7% once since then and also noticed a higher BG the next test. I normally try to stick to 5% or less as much as possible. I'd have expected that kind of jump if it had been 11% but 7% doesn't seem like it's that much more than his usual so I was surprised.

 

I'm happy to say that Kitty had a green number this cycle -- so it looks pretty good that 9 Lives Chicken Dinner is not raising his numbers!

Marvie, I also have tried to stay below 5. I guess it figures -- 8 is twice the FF's 4, so double anything would be likely to have an impact.

And working backwards, it really does seem to me that the FF Tender Beef is not as low-carb as it was. Kitty's numbers definitely went UP. Even if the carb is only 2% higher, that could be enough to do it.

I wish these companies would just make the values public. But when you look at Janet & Binky's chart, you can see why they don't -- most of these foods are crammed full of carbs. :YMSIGH:

 

Very true, I guess I didn't think of it like that but it makes sense.

I wish the companies would just be honest about them too. It would be really smart of they'd market a line of foods for FD but look how long it took them to get around to marketing for urinary problems... in canned food. I wonder if they get enough people writing/calling to get the values for their FD kitties... probably not but hey, I've got time to wonder and wish ;-)

 

I never saw much difference in Yittle's blood sugar readings when we fed him 3-4% carbs vs 7-8% carbs. We've fed him a range of products during the time he was on insulin and now that he's off insulin. Between the Fancy Feast, Friskies and 9-lives he gets everything from 0-8% carbs almost every day. Plus we have a few cans of the 10% carb elegant medleys that we used when he was earning his dose decreases while tapering off Lantus - or if he's being really picky that day.

Typically he gets at least 2 meals of 7-8% carb Friskies a day, plus another 4-6 meals of anything from Fancy Feast Ocean Fish (0%) to Fancy Feast Roasted Beef (8%) with several of his favourite options being in the 4-5% carb range. It just doesn't seem to matter much to him, obviously some cats are more sensitive to slight differences in carbs then he is.

 

Gina, I love your "mommy" quote!

I would love to feed Kitty more variety, but I've been laser-focused on low-carb, to manage the diabetes. I wish I knew how he would respond to the other foods, but I hate to take the chance. I had to feed high carb a couple of times when his BG went low, and he went up about 20 points -- not considered heavily carb sensitive, but that's more than I want to risk these days.

 

It kinda depends on where you are in the cycle. We had to feed a mixture of Friskies and Fancy Feast because we've 7 rescued cats and we had to get everybody eating as much moist food as possible (while still giving a bit of kibble to the hold-outs when Yittle's done eating and not around). There was no way we could feed them all Fancy Feast. Since the Friskies is mostly 7-8% carbs we said well the standard advice is under 10% so good enough! As it is we go through 4 cans of Friskies and 2-3 cans of Fancy Feast a day here, plus kibble. When Yittle was pulling 400-600's obviously I fed him as much of the lower carb (0-4%) Fancy Feast as I could - he was eating 12x a day then (so 1/2-1 can of Friskies plus 4-5 cans of Fancy Feast himself, alone....). As he got into the 300's and lower we added more of the 5-8% carb foods and let me tell you those last few weeks on Lantus when he was pulling 30's and we were sometimes shooting microdoses under 70 - he got a LOT of the 8-10% carbs plus some of the 14% Elegant Medleys Souffles (when he was under 50).

We were getting such small rises out of him post-food that I had to resort to giving him 5-10 kibbles with his 10-14% carb food when he was in the 30's and 40's. Luckily we never needed the karo.

Its not like dry food - so if you feed your cat a 7-8% carb moist food for a meal and you get too much of a spike for your comfort levels then you don't do it again - but it shouldn't produce a huge increase compared to 4-5%.